CPI (Maoist) | The guns fall silent

November 18 marks what whitethorn good beryllium the final section successful the decades-long Maoist insurgency in India. Deep wrong Papikonda National Park successful Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitharama Raju district, security forces killed Madvi Hidma, the elusive commandant of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the Maoists’ past anticipation for subject revival. His death, coming six months aft the sidesplitting of General Secretary Nambala Kesava Rao alias Basavaraju successful May, signals not conscionable a tactical decision but the effectual illness of the equipped conflict that erstwhile threatened to engulf immense swathes of India’s forested heartland.

Hidma’s sidesplitting is important not conscionable for who helium was — a tribal person successful a Telugu-speaking ascendant enactment enactment and who roseate meteorically to the apical echelons of the CPI(Maoist) — but for wherever it happened. He did not autumn successful his acquainted terrain of Bastar’s dense jungles, which helium knew “like the backmost of his hand”, but successful unfamiliar Andhra territory, a testament to however acold the question had been pushed from its strongholds. Gunned down alongside his woman Madakam Raje and 4 trusted bodyguards, his decease was instantly followed by the elimination of 7 different cadres, including Metturi Joga Rao alias Tech Shankar, and the apprehension of 50 Maoists crossed Andhra Pradesh wrong 24 hours.

The past warrior

Born successful 1981 successful Purvati colony successful Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district, the Gondi-speaking Hidma joined the question astatine 16 and swiftly became what surrendered Maoists picture arsenic a “gifted fighter” — fierce, motivational, and an fantabulous strategist. Despite lacking ceremonial education, helium was tech-savvy, ever carrying a laptop oregon tablet, and possessed legendary connection skills that helped him extract the champion from his cadres. Basavaraju, himself an adept successful guerrilla warfare reportedly trained by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam successful the 1980s, spotted Hidma’s endowment aboriginal and elevated him to bid the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee. He became the lone tribal person from Bastar to scope the Maoist Central Committee.

After Basavaraju’s decease successful an encounter, Hidma assumed power of the CMC and its premier warring unit, Battalion 1 of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA). His grounds was devastating: astatine slightest 26 large attacks, including the 2010 Tadmetla battle that killed 76 CRPF personnel, the 2013 Jhiram Ghati ambush that killed Congress leaders Mahendra Karma and Nand Kumar Patel, the 2017 Burkapal onslaught that claimed the lives of 25 CRPF personnel, and the Tekulguda ambush that near 21 information unit dead.

Yet, for each his prowess, Hidma commanded a shrinking force. The CPI(Maoist), which boasted 45 Central Committee members successful 2010, present has hardly 10-12 left. Since 2024, astir 2,120 Maoists person surrendered and implicit 560 killed, including apical leaders. The statistic archer a communicative of inexorable decline.

Final defeat

To recognize this denouement, 1 indispensable instrumentality to the movement’s origins successful Chhattisgarh’s Dandakaranya forests. The Maoist beingness determination began not arsenic an violative but arsenic a strategical retreat. Following the illness of the Naxalbari question successful the 1970s, leaders concluded they had erred by not preparing a “rear area” for regrouping. In 1980, 7 squads totalling 49 cadres were dispatched to the astir 100,000 sq. km “Dandakaranya region”, spanning 4 States. Their ngo was to found it arsenic a harmless rear assemblage for the Telangana guerrilla zone.

The cadres won tribal spot by addressing grievances — forcing contractors to rise tendu leafage prices, tackling wood section abuses, and confronting intersexual harassment by officials. A high-ranking tribal Maoist person erstwhile explained the halfway issue: tribals felt they weren’t “treated arsenic humans”, lacking respect for their language, religion, and mode of life. Despite infrastructure similar schoolhouse buildings and electrical poles, teachers and energy remained absent.

Ironically, state-sponsored counter-insurgency campaigns proved the movement’s champion recruiters. The 1980s Jan Jagran Abhiyan, which arrested and killed suspected Naxal sympathisers, pushed tribal leaders to counsel younker to articulation the Maoists for safety. The 2005 Salwa Judum campaign, declared amerciable by the Supreme Court, forced villagers to take sides — and galore chose the Maoists, causing the enactment to turn manifold.

As ranks swelled with tribal recruits, subject operations escalated. The archetypal PLGA institution formed successful 2001, followed by the formidable Battalion-1 (later led by Hidma) successful 2009. The play saw devastating attacks: the 2007 Ranibodli battle sidesplitting 55 unit and the 2010 Mukram ambush claiming 75 CRPF lives.

Yet, the question ever carried the seeds of its ain destruction. As academician Nirmalagshu Mukherji noted successful 2010, alternatively than organising tribals into cooperatives oregon gathering wellness and acquisition institutions, the Maoists maintained the exploitative contractor strategy to taxation and garner revenues. Their purpose wasn’t socio-economic improvement but recruitment for equipped struggle.This accent connected equipped conflict flowed from a flawed knowing of the Indian authorities and a determination to replicate China’s 1920s revolutionary path. Former General Secretary Ganapathi warned against “getting bogged down successful legalism and economism“ and forgetting that “masses person to beryllium prepared for seizure of power’. This robust grip successful Abujhmarh created discontent among tribals, which intensified arsenic they gained greater transportation to the extracurricular satellite successful the 2010s and 2020s.

The state’s broad counter-strategy combined information operations with developmental outreach. The Union Home Ministry established a dedicated Left Wing Extremism Division successful 2006, providing fiscal enactment for fortifying constabulary stations and strengthening authorities forces. The CPI(Maoist) was banned nether the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act successful 2009. Crucially, payment measures — Public Distribution System shops, Anganwadi centres — were routed done caller guardant information camps adjacent Maoist areas. By the mid-2010s, the aforesaid tribal leaders who had encouraged joining the Maoists began showing wariness astir their presence. The play of 2024-25 proved decisive. Over 50 caller guardant camps successful South Bastar and Narayanpur restricted the question of the PLGA, portion astir 2,000 section ‘Bastar Fighters’ with superior terrain and connection cognition addressed the Maoist menace significantly. ‘Operation Kagar’, launched successful April 2025, systematically targeted the enactment — claiming Basavaraju successful May and Hidma successful November.

In August 2024, the Maoist Politburo acknowledged nationwide setbacks and nonaccomplishment to execute 2020 targets, reframing its strategy toward tactical retreat and protecting the party. It restructured battalions into smaller units to debar encirclement. Yet adjacent this couldn’t prevention Basavaraju oregon Hidma.

The roadworthy ahead

Just earlier Hidma’s death, surrendered Central Committee Member Mallojula Venugopal alias Sonu (younger member of erstwhile Maoist elder person Mallojula Koteswara Rao alias Kishenji) appealed to remaining Maoists to laic down arms, stating bluntly that equipped conflict was “no longer relevant” and their unit “no lucifer for contiguous well-trained and well-equipped information forces”.

The party’s Central Committee responded by expelling Venugopal arsenic a “traitor” and pledging successful an October 2025 connection that it would “never surrender to the enemy”. Yet, specified defiance cannot obscure the movement’s illness — the connection itself admitted the force had “gained an advantage” and acknowledged the request to rebuild “while protecting the Party”. The insurgent enactment is present led by Thippiri Tirupathi alias Devuji, though its Central Committee is yet to meet, fearing information forces’ reprisals, to endorse this decision.

As the guns progressively autumn silent, the situation shifts. A absorption solely connected information could make caller grievances. Only a welfare-minded attack allowing tribal integration with dignity tin forestall resurgence. For the Maoists, with enactment depleted done age, imprisonment, oregon decease successful encounters, the question faces its severest crisis. The communicative of their vicissitudes should suggest a superior rethink connected their knowing of the Indian authorities and the futility of an equipped conflict that relegated wide mobilisation and socio-economic organisation. The imagination of revolution, it appears, has yet died successful the forests of south-central India.